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Preeti Pandey

Bangalore , Dec. 10

ISRAEL-HEADQUARTERED Mercury Interactive Corporation is scouting the subcontinent for a suitable R&D location.

However, India is not the only candidate on the global software testing firm's radar, with senior company officials also exploring the possibility of opening facilities in China and Eastern Europe.

While the company is evaluating options about feasible sites, MIC is also looking to aggressively grow its business from India and towards this end, has plans to establish more CoE relationships with Indian vendors.

"Currently, a senior management team is evaluating the possibility for us to set up R&D facilities here. We are happy with the quality of engineers in Israel. However, with business volumes picking up there is scope to outsource some amount of R&D to the new location. We are looking to either start research on an entirely new product line at new the facility or move research of an existing product line. Of course, Israel will continue to be the focal point of all our R&D efforts," Mr Boaz Chalamish, Vice-President and GM-Research and Development, MIC, told Business Line.

With 11 per cent of the revenues channelised into R&D, the company plans to significantly scale up its research staff of 600 people by next year. Currently, two-third of MIC's research is conducted in Israel with the rest divided between the Palo Alto and Silicon Valley facilities.

Declining to specify investments, Mr Chalamish said: "We expect to continue our growth rate at upwards of 20 per cent and money will not be an issue since we have enough funds."

Meanwhile, MIC's Indian foray is gaining traction with over 200 customers on its portfolio including recent customer wins such as Wipro and TCS wherein Mercury has set up a Centre of Excellence (CoE) of the Indian firms' campus.

"There is scope to have more such CoEs if there is a customer requirement," Mr T. Srinivasan, MD-India, said.

Besides the testing of software products that Mercury develops, new avenues including BTO (Business Technology Optimisation) and software training and testing certification programmes on Mercury products are actively being explored.

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Israeli co scouting for R&D location in India

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